Monthly Archives: January 2012

I don’t feel lonely yet, and hope I can keep it away for a while even if it does eventually set in. Took Alex to the airport tonight which wasn’t as bad as I was expecting, then came home to have a good old chat with Paul and his girlfriend. Off to the nursery tomorrow with a friend from Wednesday’s dinner, possibly to pick up a new sunflower as the one I took from the side of the road this afternoon might not survive too well being left in the sun all afternoon instead of in a pot in the shade (apparently Paul knows a bit about gardening).

Last night we had a great dinner with Alex’s friend from work who lives here and his girlfriend who I made friends with due to our bargain hunting nature – can’t wait to see what scoopons we get to try out!

I write to you from my new house. What’s it like? Pretty awesome I’d say. I’ve spent most of this week setting everything up for my new room – I have a 5 piece cupboard set which takes up most of the wall space (but still only 2/3 of the wall height), a new ikea bed/couch thing with heaps of floor clearance (for a trundle which I didn’t buy), enough floor space for another single bed and a double bed hah, and at the moment a desk which the lady gave away with the cupboards (it’s a bit heavy though so I might trade it out for a different table). Looking around, the walls are a bit dirty (white) and have screws left in them, so I think I’ll try some drapes from the ceiling to make it look prettier.

Alex is here with me which definitely made the send off a bit easier, though it was still quite emotional. I know I’ll see everyone soon though, which helps.

That was Monday morning, and later that day we ditched our (my) bags at home and had a chat with Paul, then walked (!) into the city looking around, eat some dumplings, buy some bedding and grab some groceries on the way home (open till midnight, of course).

Tuesday we picked up my furniture with the rental van then headed to ikea to grab a bed (and lunch of COURSE), and ages away to pick up the world’s comfiest beanbags before heading to Lygon St for Italian for dinner.

Wednesday we returned the van and had brunch at a place recommended by one of my friends. Apparently coffee is amazing in Melbourne – I’m getting used to it but to me it will only be good when it doesn’t quite taste like coffee 🙂 We set up some furniture and took a trip to the post office to send some paperwork for my job, then I went to dinner with Paul’s friends which he invited me to. I got there before most of the people but made friends with the two who were there, and then got introduced to a few more who sat with us and by the end of the night (there was a bit of a house party involved) we might have even been friends! Some of them even added me on facebook, so we’re going to the nursery on the weekend like they offered. They said that the inner northern suburbs are the place to be and where most of their friends live, so I might always have someone to catch transport home with then.

On Thursday I was planning to have breakfast with a friend who’s moving to away from Melbourne but we both slept in and missed the opportunity. Alex and I went to the Australia Day activities (comedians, old cars, dog relays and free choctops were involved) before going for a shop and getting some burgers at a rooftop bar.

Today has been pretty lazy: we went to the hardware store then got burgers and are waiting around to maybe have dinner with Alex’s friend from work who lives in Melbourne.

The main differences here compared to Brisbane are that I’m close to everything (library, post office, work, city, restaurants, movies, groceries, etc) and that it gets dark at like 9pm which is a bit strange. I can understand why it’s said that you don’t need a car, but I’m itching for mine to arrive so that I can go shopping for fabric and other things to finish off this room!

Car’s been packed and sent off; today to tackle what’s left of my room. Pretty much all of my non-clothes belongings fit in three small packing boxes, which I was surprised by. I should have been packing light – in a new, nomad-type way – but once I found out that my new place had a car space, I figured whatever could fit in my car might as well be down there. Did I mention I have a place to stay in Melbourne? Pretty big deal I suppose – things are so much calmer now that I know where I’ll be going once I get to Melbourne! Plus, since the room is only available on the 23rd, I can push my start date to the 30th and have an extra week in Brisbane, plus a week of setting up my place (rather than finding one) once I get there.

The house is in Carlton (North, technically), sharing with a computer scientist Paul and web developer Claudine.

The first sign of emotion was experienced on new year’s day.. partly because I can remember writing this blog description and listing NYD12 as the time everything would change, and partly because I had to make the event of my going away party. I realised that things were getting pretty finalised, so it took me a while to send out the invites.

Now it’s the day after the party, and I’m pretty mellow. There’s nothing left for me to do in Brisbane – it’s all pretty much over! I had a good time last night, with my 40 friends, but I always come home from nights out wondering why I can never get reckless like everyone else. I definitely think I should have taken up the opportunity of going to a karaoke place when it was presented, because I really have always thought it would be so much fun and everyone who was there was there because they were my friend. They hit the town just for me! That made me feel good when I realised that I do have friends, because sometimes I feel like I just have many acquaintances which I have collected over the years. Next time I’m back though: karaoke!

This night probably should have been one of the ‘big deal’ events.. didn’t even get upset. I am beginning to wonder if I am perhaps actually just strong enough that I am not terribly upset by this? We’ll see in a week….

Found it interesting to remember that the feeling I have now of wishing that I had realised something was a big deal so that I’d engaged more is one which I felt over 5 years ago after my high school formal. I wonder if this will continue throughout my life then?